greater Guilt upon them and a secret Curse also cleaving to them for their abuse and perverting of thess Mercies And so much of the thing it self here signified for the main Gods Deliverance and preservation of David He hath not c. Now we may further here take notice of the Phrase and Expression which is here used He hath not given me over to Death It is not simply he hath not killed me or taken away my life from me though that be principally intended But he hath not given me over to Death This is true of the Servants of God even there where Death seases upon them yet they are not under the power of it It does not at last prevail upon them which holds true in a twofold regard First Not under the Curse of it it being sanctified to them for their Good Death to the servants of God is a Conquered Enemy it is a Serpent without a sting O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory The sting of Death is Sin the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ as St. Paul in his Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.55.56 God hath not given his Children over to Death but rather hath given Death over to his Children therefore Death is said to be theirs not they to be Death's 1 Cor. 3.21.22 All things are yours and amongst the rest even Death it self Death is under the power of the Church and in a sort at her Command forher Benefit and Advantage as an Entrance for her into Eternal Glory To me to live is Christ and to Die is gain says the Blessed Apostle of Himself Phil. 1.21 Which is true also of any other Beleiver Christ has redeemed us from Death as it is a Curse the Saints they are not under that Secondly As the Saints are not under the Curse of Death so neither under the Contrivances of it and so in that respect not given over to it as being at last made partakers of a blessed and Joyful Resurrection As our blessed Saviour Christ Himself who seems also to be tipified in this Psalm it is noted of him Acts 2.24 That God raised him up from the Dead having loosed the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it As it was not possible for him so neither is it possible for any of his Members it was not possible for him to be detained many days Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy one to see Corruption For it is not possible for his Members to be absolutely and always detained but shall at last be loosed from it As Death had no dominion over him so neither over them This Corruption shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall put on Immortality and Death it self shall be swallowed up into Victory as the Apostle has it 1 Cor. 15.45 This is a point of singular Comfort to the Children of God and that which may satisfy them in the thoughts and Meditation of their Mortality that though they may and shall die at last yet they shall not be given over to Death It shall not tyrannize nor Dominear over them Indeed it is the Happy advantage of people that they are given over to no Evil whatsoever whether Spiritual or Temporal neither to the Evil of Sin nor to the Evil of Punishment though they be Capable and sensible of both and liable to them First Not to the Evil of Sin and Satan not given over to that As for wicked and ungodly persons it is their Misey to be so Satan rules in them God gives them over to sinful Courses as it is noted of the Gentiles thrice together in one Chapter the First of the Romans God gave them over He gave them over to Vncleanness and he gave them over to vile Affections and he gave them over to a reprobate Mind still he gave them over But he does not so with his own servants though for just and holy reasons he suffers them to be troubled with Sins while they live here below in the world yet he does not give them over to it Sin shall not raign in their mortal Bodies Iniquity shall not have Dominion over tkem nor presumptuous Sins especially shall not prevail upon them nor given over to the Evil of sin No nor Secondly To the Evil of Punishment neither not given over to that and in particular to this of Death As for wicked men and such as are none of Gods Children It is said they are like Sheep laid in the Grave and Death shall feed on them Psal 49.14 Death shall feed on them that is have it's fill and glut of them and shall do what it list unto them Yea but with the servants of God it shall be otherwise as David there makes the opposition in his own Person but God will redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah He was not given over to the power of Death And as not of Death Temporal so especially not of Eternal neither God did not give him over to this of any other whatsoever could be thought off God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5.9 God will be sure to keep his Children from this and does order all things to them in reference hereunto even Corrections and Afflictions themselves as I in part hinted before Chastens them here that he may not Damn them hereafter so that the Connexion holds very well here in this sense which we have now before us The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death as a Mercy consequent to this his Chastening and Correcting of me And so we have done with both the parts of the Text The Condition and the Qualification of that Condition to him in this whole verse The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death SERMON XXVI Psal 133.1 Behold how Good and Pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity It is the great advantage of Vertue that it carries it's Evidence within it self whereby it becomes lovely and amiable in the eyes of all that observe it and behold it and take notice of it And as other Vertues and Graces besides so amongst the rest the Grace of Love and peaceableness and Unity and brotherly concord It is such as is very eminent and illustrious and which commends it self to all mens Consciences in the sight of God This is that which is here exhibited to us in this present Scripture before us in the Testimony of the Prophet David wherein we have a lively representation set before us of the Benefit of the Communion of Saints which is a main and Principle Article of our Belief and Christian Faith And so an argument very sutable and agreeable to the present occasion of our Assembling and coming
advantage of them so that where they will be troubled they shall be And where he at any time discerns any proneness or inclination in them to it he is ready as much as may be to promote it and set it on further that they may be troubled more He loves to fish in troubled waters and to add sorrow to sorrow for the greater perplexity of Gods People Hence he raises a great many fears and jealousies and suspitions in them whereby the more to afflict them Thirdly From the weakness of Grace Therefore it is that Gods Children are apt and subject now and then to be inordinately troubled in themselves because Grace is but weak in them We see how it is in the Body that those who are but of weak constitutions as Children and such as they a little matter troubles them and proves offensive unto them And so it is likewise in the Soul and Spirit and inward man Where Christians are but weak they will be disquieted and easily upon every turn put out of frame Thus it was now at this present with the Disciples of Christ They were as yet but weak Christians in regard whereof he tells them elsewhere that he forbore to speak of some things unto them This is the case also with many others They are but Children and Babes in Christ and therefore apt to be troubled Nay even those who have Grace in the greatest measure if we take it comparatively yet their Grace is but weak and slender in them here in this life as a ground of this perplexity in them Their Faith and their Love and their Heavenly-mindedness and their Zeal and their Patience all in a manner but weak and therefore are their Hearts full of fears and perplexities and disquietings in themselves as a consequent of it The use which we are to make of it is accordingly to take notice of it both in our selves and others that so we may be both humbled for it and prepared against it For it is that which the best that are they are prone to if they do not the better look to themselves It is that which we have dayly and continual experience of every moment How soon we are dejected and cast down and out of heart in our selves upon any occasion such a tenderness and moleities and softness and delicateness there is upon us as that the least thing that is it troubles us and fils us with disquietness And that 's the first thing here observable from these words viz. A Christians Disposition He is apt and subject to be troubled as appears from this Caution or Prohibition of Christ to his Disciples The Second is his Duty and that is not to be troubled or afraid Christians they should by all means shun and take heed of this trouble in themselves Let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Not troubled for the evil which is present and already upon you not afraid for the evil which is expected or looked for for time to come Here 's a Caveat both against Grief and against Fear Each of which are such Passions as in the miscarriage and exorbitancy of them have much evil and sinfulness in them We 'l joyn them both together in the handling of them as coming both to one and the same effect Where that we may rightly understand the Point we may not conceive as if our Saviour did here plead for a Stoical apathy or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senselessness and stupidity of Disposition from whence men are altogether mindless and regardless of the condition in which they are This is so far from the mind of Christ as that he does rather exceedingly abhor it and abominate it in those it is in We see how even He himself sometimes was troubled as he consesses and acknowledges it of Himself And he did so far forth express his participation of our Humane Nature in Him Therefore it is not Trouble simply which he here prohibits but the inordinacy of it which therefore we should avoid For the better opening and prosecuting of this Point which we have now before us there are two things which we shall do with Gods assistance First shew how far we may or ought to be troubled Secondly shew how far we may not or ought not to be troubled for there is somewhat considerable as to both First then how far we may and ought There are two things which are the proper objects of Trouble which it is exercised and conversant about Sin and Misery And accordingly it is not unlawful but very requisite and warrantable for a Christian in a due manner and measure to be troubled for either of these as he hath occasion for it First A Christian may be very well troubled in point of sin yea and ought so to be That which troubles all the World as to the ground and matter of trouble as sins does it ought not to be slighted by a Christian but he is much to be affected with it Whether in himself or in other men as he does discern and observe it to be in them For himself first That which He is guilty of for his own particular it ought to go very near unto him It is that which the Servants of God in Scripture have been very much troubled for when they have considered it and reflected upon it as we may see in divers instances and examples David Psal 38.3 4 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Peter Math. 27.75 When he had deny'd his Master and remembred the words of Jesus unto him He went out and wept bitterly Paul Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Thus have the Servants of God been much troubled when they have thought of their sin First As a dishonour in reference to God and a grief unto him whose Glory is or should be very dear unto them Through breaking of the Law thou dishonourest God Rom. 2.23 And by this deed thou hast made the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme 2 Sam. 12.14 This it should go very near to a Christian Heart If I be a father where is mine honour Can we call our selves the Children of God and have no sense of the honour of God surely this is very unsuitable No it becomes us to be much troubled for sin so far forth as it is a dishonour to God as his Name is occasionally reproach'd and blasphemed by it And then not only as a dishonour to him but likewise as a grieving of him for so it is Isa 63.10 They rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed c. Eph. 4.30 Shall sin grieve God and shall it not grieve us
as he is God but as he is God-Man as he is the Mediator and Head of the Church in which sense we are here to understand it And so he is variously exprest in Scripture as the Tree of Life as the Bread of Life as the Water of Life Christ he is every way and in all respects Life unto us both in reference to Grace and Glory I am come says he that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 Christ he is both the Author of our life and the matter of our life too He is the root and spring of it in whom it is and from whom it slows unto us And he is the substance of it in whom it consisteth because he only is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 He is our life as that which we feed on and are sustained and nourished by as a man is by his natural food in the life of nature His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and conveys life indeed by it There 's a threefold life which Christ does convey to all those who are true Believers First the life of Justification Secondly the life of Sanctification And Thirdly the life of Glory And in the conveyance of each of these unto them he is said to be emphatically the life as also in another place The life was manifested and we have seen it in 1 Joh. 1.2 First Christ is the life of Justification as to the pardon and forgiveness of our sins Persons that are condemned they are so far forth said to be dead namely as they are appointed to death they are dead in Law And this is the state and condition of us all by nature by reason of our first transgression there was a sentence of death past upon us and we were adjudg'd thereunto In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3.17 Now Christ he hath reverst this sentence and removed this death from us by dying for us By his obedience and suffering he hath satisfied the Justice of his Father and thereby hath reconciled us and put us into a state of life again Thus Col. 2.13 You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Mark He hath quickned you by forgiving you I orgiving it is a kind of quickning because it makes a man a child of life who was before a child of death And this is that which Christ hath done for us he hath quickned us thus so far forth as he hath absolved us and set us free from condemnation by taking our guilt upon himself and that 's called a Justification of life Rom. 13.18 Now this it hath another life which is pertinent and belonging hereunto and consequent from it which therefore we may look upon under the same head with it And this is a life of peace and spiritual comfort For as by reason of sin we are plainly and absolutely dead and have a sentence of condemnation past upon us So from hence where it is discovered to us and we are made sensible of it we come to be dejected and cast down in our selves We are not only all dead but we are all a mort likewise Therefore as answerable to one death of sentence we have need of a life of absolution So answerable to the death of despair which is apt to follow upon that death of sentence where it does not appear to be remitted we have need of a life of consolation to be bestow'd upon us And this is Christ also unto us He is our Peace as the Scipture stiles him not only in the thing it self but also in our own consciences not only as to our state but as to our spirit not only as to our state to make it justifiable but as to our spirit to make it comfortable And in that respect also our life Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce c. in Rom. 5.1 c. Secondly As Christ is the life of Justification so he is the life of Sanctification likewise When God pardoned our sins through the Blood of Christ he gives us Grace and Holiness from the Spirit of Christ as a fruit and consequent of that pardon and reconciliation And Christ himself does impart and communicate his Spirit unto us for this purpose He is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Not only from the law of death as to matter of guilt and condemnation but also from the law of sin as to matter of filth and pollution and hath put a new and another law into me which is the law of Grace and holiness of the Spirit This is the method wherein we partake of this spiritual life that it is first of all subjected in Christ and from him derived unto us The Spirit of God first sanctifies the humane nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us and conveys a new nature unto us Christ lives in us by his Spirit Gal. 2.20 And therefore call'd a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 This Life is further considerable not only in the principle of it but in the activity of it not only as that whereby we are simply enabled and made capable of doing our duty but also are made vigorous in it Christ is our life so far forth as we have a livelihood in any thing which is good And thus also the life of Sanctification Thirdly The life of Glory Christ is that likewise so far forth as he makes all his Servants to be partakers of it For so he does he raises up their bodies from the grave and he possesses both body and soul with eternal happiness And so the Scripture informs us Thus Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye c. Christ is the life of the resurrection forasmuch as his resurrection hath an insluence and effect upon ours and is the cause of it Whatsoever is done to us it is done first of all to him He lives and we live in him He is risen again and we shall rise again by him and from him According to that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power And again 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you And again Phil. 3.22 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Thus is Christ the life
saving Grace but also a contrary principle of death that is of sin dwelling in him whereby the sinner is both habitually turn'd from God as also habitually turn'd to the creature and carried contrary to the Law of God The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be The Third Proposition All the works which are wrought by any man before the Grace of Christ and the Spirit of God changing his heart they have in them the nature of sin As for example the vertues of many of the Heathen Aristides Socrates Scipio and the rest although they might be called civil vertues and so far forth as they were thereby useful and serviceable to humane society they might deserve to be commended yet forasmuch as they were defective of such conditions as in the Law of God are required to the making of good actions for the subject a sanctified heart for the end the glory of God and for the principle Faith working by love however in regard of the matter they may be accounted good yet for the manner they must be esteem'd vicious as deprivations of good works rather than as performances of them The Fourth is this That forasmuch as man in the state of nature is so miserably depraved and prone to all manner of evil and indisposed to any thing which is truly and spiritually good we conclude that as to the first work of conversion and actions of the like nature with it man is meerly passive and receptive not active or operative that is that he hath no free-will or power working with God but is a meer subject receiving the mighty work of God upon his soul According to that of St. Bernard which is very full and express to this purpose Deus est Author salutis liberum arbitrium tantum capax nec dare eam nisi Deus nec capere eam valet nisi liberum arbitrium God is the Author of Salvation free-will is only the receiver neither can any give it but God neither can any take it but free-will Which yet notwithstanding is not so to be understood by us as if in the workings of Grace the mind and will of man did not at all move themselves but were only moved as inanimate instruments as the hand moving the hatchet or the like this we do not say But thus That God in the work of conversion does by his regenerating Spirit so reform the will of man as that the natural power thereof which before did carry and apply it self to evil it does now carry and apply it self to good Wherein the act of willing is indeed from the will it self as the proper subject of that action but the supernatural goodness of this act is wholly from God who does use to work suitably and agreeably to the nature of the creature The will of man in his regeneration is not as a meer stock or stone or forced to Faith and conversion against the created properties of it but naturae voluntatis congruentes suitable to the nature of the will For besides that passive power which is in the will of man to God which is not in a stock or stone God does moreover in conversion not violently force the will but sweetly drive it with the reserving of those properties to it which were bestowed upon it in its creation The last Proposition is this That for the conversion of man in the state of nature and the performing of any good work by him it is not sufficient to have his will only excited and assisted by extrinsecal and additional Grace but it is also necessary to be healed and quickned by intrinsecal and renewing Grace and to have new qualities and principles and dispositions put into it That life which was not before is to be newly created not that life which was before to be newly excited This Grace of God in conversion it is not only a moral suasion or indifferent influx which it is in the power of men to assent or not assent unto but a strong and effectual motion as whereby he raised Jesus Christ from the dead Eph. 1.19.20 The Grace of God I say in conversion is not a meer moral suasion or indifferent influx which it is in the power of man to assent or not to assent unto As a Guest which stands without doors which a man may either take in or keep out as himself pleases but it is a strong and efficatious motion whereby God according to his mighty power raised Jesus Christ from the dead doth quicken a man which is dead in sin makes him a new creature and works in him not only a power of willing but even to will it self According to that of the Apostle Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Mark he does not only excite but work which hath some efficacy with it And these now are the Propositions which do serve to clear this Ponint unto us From all which thus laid together both the consent and dissent of adversaries together with the explication of the terms the whole matter in hand comes to this result and conclusion viz. That man being fallen in Adam not as recovered and restored by Grace but as still abiding in this his lapst condition hath not free-will not understanding it of the nature of the will but of the power of it And of the power of it not in a passive sense but in an active Not with Grace but without Grace And Grace not only exciting and moving and assisting but also changing and healing and quickening to a good work not which is good only Philosophically but good Theologically And for the doing of this work not only as to the substance of the action but also as to the manner of the performance the end and principle and all requisite circumstances And these circumstances consider'd not only according to the rules of morality and which are to be sound even in Heathen Authors but according to the principles of Religion and which are derived from the holy Scriptures I say A man that is at present out of Christ and so still continuing in this his state of nature hath not any freedom of will thus explained remaining in him to any thing which is good And so this speech of our Blessed Saviour truly fulfilled Without me ye can do nothing This we shall now labour to evince by these following Arguments First From the general and universal corruption of our whole nature where the principles are corrupted the actions which slow from those principles must of necessity be corrupted likewise As the spiring and fountain is so are the streams that issue from it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean says Job not one in Job 14.4 Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles says our Saviour A corrupt tree must needs bring forth evil fruit Matth. 7.16 17. Now all the principles of
ingagement to all men which are in such an estate to get out of it as soon as it is possible Secondly Here 's matter also of thankfulness to all those whom God has freed from this condition and brought into a better estate by Christ as these Romans here were they have great cause of praising and blessing God who hath dealt thus graciously with them who whiles before they were unfruitful and disgraceful and dead and lyable to destruction are now freed from all these and have the contrary qualities put upon them And as a special Testimony of our thankfulness indeed we should endeavour especially to live accordingly and to shew forth the praises or vertues of him that has call'd us out of darkness into his marvellous hight as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 2.9 This is the proper use which the Apostle Paul himself seems to make of it in the very next Chapter Rom. 7.5 6. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter This is that which we should all labour after whom it hath pleased God to deal thus withal as he had here done with these Romans before us And thus I have done with the third particular inconvenience of sin and so also with this whole Text in hand What fruit had ye them in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for c. SERMON XXXIX Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you It is the manner of all those which are exact and accurate work-men not to rest themselves satisfied at any time with any thing which is done by them till they have brought it to some perfection and accomplishment but where they essay any present flawes or defects in any of their work to return to it and come ouer it again for the rectifying of it And this is that which me may here observe in the carriage of the Apostle Paul to these Galatians to whom he here writes he had taken a great deal of pains with them to convert them and to bring them to the Faith and to acquaint them with the knowledg of Christ as we may see in the former part of the Epistle but they partly through their own negligence and non-attendency partly through Satans malice and the seducement of false-teachers amongst them were much apostatized and departed from the Truth in intermingling the Gospel of Christ with the Law and Ceremonies of Moses from whence the very Characters of Christ were as it were defaced and and obliterated in them Now St. Paul in this Scripture besore us does here signifie his endeavours towards them for the reducement and recovery of them and the restoring of this Image of Christ in them My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you This is the scope of the Text. IN the Text it self we have three General Parts considerable of us First The Compellation which the Apostle puts upon the Galatians and that is little children Secondly The Condition in which he stands in reference to them and that is that he travelleth in birth Thirdly The extent of this condition and that is till Christ be formed in them To begin with the first viz. The Compellation My little children Now this it hath a double notion or Emphasis which may be fastened upon it First An Emphasis of Affection And secondly an Emphasis of Diminution There 's love and disparagement both in this manner of Expression First There 's affection in it even the affection of a Father to his Children or a Mother to the fruit of her Womb which is also in a good Minister towards his People he tenders them even as his own bowels Thus did Paul these present Galatians Therefore as before in ver 12. he call'd them Brethren so here now in this 19th verse he calls them little Children The same affection does he likewise express towards some others in other places as 1 Thes 2.7 8. We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectiontely desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us So likewise the Apostle John often in his Epistles uses this phrase to Believers of little children all to express his good-will and affection towards them and that 's one thing which we may observe in it here Secondly As it has in it the Emphasis of affection as shewing the greatness of his love so it has also the Emphasis of diminution as shewing the tenderness of their growth and proficiency in Religion who were now but of a low stature and degree in Christianity Thus the word sometimes is taken also in Scripture as 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ So Heb. 5.12 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of rightenusness for he is a babe In which places and the like a weaker Christian is set forth by the name of a babe or little child And so here now in this Text before us We shall see the Resemblance made good in sundry particulars First From that which I mentioned before the smallness of their growth Little children they are but mean of stature and far short of manly perfections and so are weaker Christians and young beginners as to matter of Religion they are but infants and little children in comparison and therefore are to be perswaded to attend upon the means of growth not to stand always at a stay but to put on and to drive forward to perfection as the Apostle Paul professes of himself that he was careful to do Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus c. The contrary hereunto is that which is much to be bewail'd in divers Christians there are many which are well-grown and old men in reference to the world which yet are but babes and little children in Christ such as the Apostle complains of to the Hebrews chap. 5. vers 12. Who when as for the time they might have been teachers of others one had need to teach them again what be the first principles of the Oracles of God c. Nay we may go a little further than so not only which for the time may be teachers but which for the thing will be teachers and take upon them so weighty a work as that is who it they were well sifted and exawined and call'd to account would be found short in the common Articles